John Jooste

John Jooste was born in Calvinia West in 1961 and lives there still. He never took much interest in story-telling and so does not have many stories to share.

John Jooste became involved in gang-related activities at a young age and was jailed for some time. He feels that Calvinia does not hold many job opportunities.

John Jooste was born in Calvinia West in 1961. He grew up and went to school there, but only until standard 7. When he dropped out of school he became involved in gang-related activities and was jailed until 1999. There are not many job opportunities in the area, so crime presents itself as an option – although it has dire consequences. He has never had much interest in stories and cannot tell any.

John Peters Jooste. I was born here in Calvinia… Born the sixth of the sixth month 1961. At the moment I’m 56 years old. I was born here in Calvinia West and this is where I grew up, all my years.

Look, it isn’t necessary to talk about what has been, is it?

What has been, where you went to school and so on.

Yes. I went to school here, here in Calvinia West. That is why I said I was born here, went to school here and I grew up here, everything here in Calvinia West. And this is where I still am today.

Have you ever heard stories about Dirk Ligter and those guys? About Jan Thomas? Do you know any such stories?

No, not yet.

And ghost stories. Any stories, ghost stories?

There aren’t any that I could really tell you, because look, I actually have many stories. Look, mine are actually, I’m actually one who… Because, see, I was in prison most of my years.

Okay, tell us about that.

And I came back home for the first time in ’99, and I’m still here at home. That is what I can say.

Any stories that you’ve heard about Calvinia, that the old people told you, your ma and them? Pa and them?

Look, man, it is… I say it is just another place, we are the disadvantaged in the community. And that is how I grew up. Thanks to everything that my ma and them and my pa and them did, I am what I am today. That I could reach that age.

I went to school up to Standard 7. There weren’t grades yet in those years, but it’s now Grade 9 and I went to that school up to Grade 9. And that is when I left school. And then I started linking up with gang activities. And through… that was actually the problem that took me out of Calvinia. I was in prison all those years, then I came back in ’99 and from ’99 I’ve been at home here. In Calvinia West. That is why it is… I think we don’t really have, there aren’t really, I think, many job opportunities for the youth. So when there is a job, then I have to take it, even though the salary isn’t what it should be. Or should I say, the salary scales are not what they should be. But… we have to accept it. Because we don’t know. To go stealing again, or carry… break into peoples’ homes, then you lose out again. So why do you do it? See. That is why we first use what we get. But I have nothing else…

Have you heard of paljas*?

Yes, Sir, but I say, not interested in those things, have never been interested in doekom* things [sorcery things]. No, I’m not interested in those things.

So you can’t remember anything about Dirk Ligter or Jan Thomas, or what people said they had done?

Yes, look, that is, did… at school about Dirk Ligter and them. Those people. At school we actually, and how can I put it, in other words, like a subject that we had, in those years. But look, like this year, you get subjects with different names, but if you, if you look correctly, then you can see, it’s like other things that happened. See. That is actually what it is about. But I learnt about them all at school. And look, it’s up here, the one who was named after Abram Esau. Look, that is, that is also a coloured who suffered over the years. The Boers* broke him down. See. He, how shall I put it… Look you couldn’t tell the truth. Not those years. One accepted that if that was what was said, then you had to accept that it was like that. It was what it was.